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Structure time 4 begin Spanish- 2 hrs/day | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4053 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 12 28 October 2013 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have always thought I was terrible at languages - I failed at both French and Italian. But I am dating a guy from Peru (I live in the US) and have been motivated to give Spanish a try. I signed up for a weekly group Spanish class, but decided to attack the language other angles. I've devoted two hours a day to working on my Spanish in hopes that I see some real progress. I'm writing now to ask about structuring my language practice time. I've done a lot of reading on this forum but my head is spinning a little bit. I've been working my way through Synergy Spanish and definitely feel as if I am progressing.
My typical study session 40 min with Synergy Spanish2013 (almost done - what next?) 30 min. with Duolingo 20 min with flashcards (I've been playing with both Anki and MosaLinga - don't love the flash card method as I feel overwhelmed by the number of words that I don't know - but plugging away) 30 min with Coffee Break Spanish Additionally -30 min with other media (I watch children's programs like Sesame Street or color videos on YouTube or listen to the news in slow) -I've been listening to music such as Shakira or other music I like - trying to translate and sing along -Finally, I'm around Spanish quite a bit. I have many opportunities when Spanish is the primarily language spoken. My main questions: Should I do another program like Michel Thomas, FSI or Assmil? Is there a better way to structure my time so that I'm learning more quickly (I am going to Peru in March - so I would love to see some rapid progress in 5 months) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5377 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 12 28 October 2013 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have heard good things about Synergy Spanish and I would stick with it. I'd also definitely start doing Assimil.
My suggestion would be to spend your first hour a day doing Synergy Spanish. Then when you are done with it move on to Michel Thomas 1. Then Michel Thomas 2. For your second hour I'd do a lesson of Assimil every day. If you start right away, you should be just about done with it by March. FSI is great, but I recommend people don't do it until they have a fairly decent grasp of vocabulary and grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4053 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 12 28 October 2013 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi James -
Thank you so much! That is incredibly helpful. Just getting specific advice is encouraging. Cheers, Amy 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5534 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 12 28 October 2013 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your study program looks quite good, actually, and you should definitely be able to make a lot of progress in 5 months. If you're looking for a goal, you might try setting one like, "I want to get off the plane in Peru speaking Spanish, and I want to keep speaking Spanish in any 'normal' situation." There's something magic about carving out a space in your life where no English is allowed—it encourages you to fall forward towards fluency, and not backwards towards comfortable old English. Remember that when you meet new people, whichever language you choose for your first conversation will likely become the default between you.
I definitely agree that Assimil is an excellent choice. And lots of people swear by Michel Thomas-style courses for speaking practice. Some other ideas to prepare your for your trip: 1) You'll want to practice speaking at some point. You might start by writing about your day over on lang-8, just to help internalize some useful vocabulary and turns of phrase. When you travel, every conversation starts, "Oh, where are you from? How do you like our country? How did you meet so-and-so?" If you spend some time writing and talking about that stuff, you get a free 5 minutes of easy Spanish at the start of every conversation—which is often enough to unconsciously convince people that you actually speak Spanish. For more ideas on how to fake it, check out the excellent How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately. Also look into Verbling. When you first start speaking, the first two weeks may feel like your brain is melting. After a month or two it gets a lot easier! 2) I really like your "Additionally" section. In the long run, you can learn an amazing amount from media, music and just doing stuff in Spanish with other people. Your brain is your ally here: It still remembers how to learn languages to a decent level, perhaps with a bit of help. To tap into that ability, though, you need to convince your brain that Spanish is a useful and critical skill. You do this by surrounding yourself with Spanish and throwing yourself into situations where speaking Spanish is necessary. It doesn't hurt if Spanish is fun, too! The quickest way I know to make a lot of progress is to combine Khatzumoto's and Benny Lewis's language learning advice. Khatzumoto says to surround yourself with the new language. Benny says to stop speaking your current language and start muddling through with your new one whenever possible. If you do this, your brain will probably get the message, and you'll get a big "natural" language-learning boost. Combine that boost with courses, corrections on lang-8, and lots of practice, and you can cover a lot of ground very quickly. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4053 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 12 28 October 2013 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks so much, Diglot. I particularly like your idea about setting a more concrete goal for myself and also ideas for practice.
I had a dinner party this weekend where I was the only native English speaker. I didn't try to speak much but just focused on listening. I'd love to get myself to the place where speaking is possible. I know Benny says to just do it. But it's so hard to not be nervous! Thank you again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5534 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 12 28 October 2013 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | ||
There's nothing wrong with waiting a while to speak. I never really spoke much French until I could understand nearly all of what my wife was saying to the kids. Even kids may wait. In fact, some 5-year-olds will listen to a new language for as much as six months before they start speaking. If you're comfortable just sitting there and listening to other people speak Spanish for now, there's nothing wrong with that. It's really not so much a question of speaking Spanish as such—the important thing is not letting English drive out Spanish. Way too many move to another country with the intent of immersing themselves in a foreign language, and tell themselves, "It's OK if I speak English just for the first week while I get settled in." And in that week, they build an English bubble around themselves that may last for decades. Assimil's "active wave" lessons may also help you speak. During these lessons, you translate English text to easy Spanish. It's good practice for building sentences in your head and learning to say basic things. Similarly, as you go about your day, try silently thinking things like, "I am opening the door. I need to go to the store." As for being nervous, well, you're going to make mistakes. You will, almost surely, say something like Estoy muy embarazada sooner or later, and everyone will laugh. But if you can laugh along with the joke, nothing bad will happen to you! I think if we traded embarrassing stories around here, we'd be busy laughing at ourselves for quite a while. One of the enjoyable things about learning a language is that you get act like a little kid again. And kids made all sorts of mistakes, and inadvertently say hilarious things. Plus, you have an excellent excuse for watching cartoons and reading comics. It's better to embrace this feeling, I think. I'm highly optimistic that you'll be able to speak enough Spanish to get buy in Peru. That's totally possible in 5 months, even if you were starting from scratch. But you've already learned some, you're putting in solid hours, and you're busily weaving a Spanish bubble around yourself even before you travel. You've got this. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TehGarnt Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4854 days ago 33 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 12 28 October 2013 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Most really accomplished language learners emphasize learning vocabulary in the early
stages, as you really need to know a lot of words to understand native conversation and adult writing - something like 8000 "base words". This takes a long, long time, but there's no need to use flashcards if you don't like them. The alternative is basically learning to understand texts and recordings of speech. Assimil is a good source of recordings with accompanying explanations and translations, as are some other courses. Also look up the learning technique of "shadowing", some people love it. So basically my advice is: learn to understand progressively more difficult Spanish recordings and texts, do some light grammar practice on the side, and remember that progress is slow even when you're doing well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 12 28 October 2013 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can I suggest Notes in Spanish as an alternative to Coffee Break Espanol? I started with Coffee Break Spanish, and
really enjoyed it…but I felt that I quickly "outgrew" it, since there's so much English in it. It mainly teaches tourist Spanish - nothing wrong with that, but it sounds like you're look for a deeper experience than that. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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